JAWS OF LIFE, YES; LADDER TRUCK, NO
A MATTER OF VICTORIA CASH AND NEED
Two members of the Victoria Fire Department spoke to councilmembers April 26^th requesting permission to apply for grants for a ladder truck (estimated cost of $650,000) and an extrication tool known as Jaws of Life (estimated cost of $65,000).
The grants are, more or less, match-grants which means that if both were awarded and accepted, the city would have to cough up over $300,000.
Stated Councilmember Jim Paulsen, "At the Town Meeting coming up, we're going to have to answer some tough ques-tions.  Whatever the vote is on the Field House, it could take a pile of money.  Un-til then, I'm just not comfortable getting into that amount of cash."
Agreed Mayor Mary Thun, "It's very hard for me to agree to spend that much money for a ladder truck if a neighboring city has one.  It weighs on my mind.  It's a tremendous amount of money for a smaller city."
Stated Councilmember Kim Roden, "We've got some serious financial issues to deal with.  I'd be more comfortable to know in advance if we had the money, in case you got the grant."
Councilmember Tim Amundsen sug-gested the possibility of applying for the grant without commitment to purchase.  "Council has a hard time turning down the Fire Department," he said.  "I personally don't have a problem going for it."
Replied Councilmember Paulsen, "What are we going to do if we get it - say, 'Just kidding'?"
Councilmember Roden said it's a matter of credibility.  Mayor Thun said she is trying to protect the city, that word would spread that the grant was awarded but turned down, that it might not then be awarded again in the future.
Council voted 3-2 to deny application for the ladder truck; councilmembers Amundsen and Richard Tieden would have gone for it.  Council voted 5-0 to apply for a grant for the extrication tool.

WALKING IN GLOOM OR PROSPERITY?
VICTORIA AUDIT LENDS ITSELF TO DISCUSSION
Councilmembers approved the audit-ed annual financial report for the City of Victoria year ended December 31^st, '06.  Steve McDonald of Abdo, Eick & Meyers reviewed the audit with councilmembers on April 26^th.  Stated Councilmember Jim Paulsen, "I hope in my afterlife that I don't have to go through 34 funds."
Regarding the audit report, Mr. McDonald said, "It's a clean opinion; that's a good thing.  There is no signifi-cant deficiency or material weakness.  There are no disagreements with man-agement.  There were no difficulties in performing the audit."
Councilmember Kim Roden pointed to audit ratios and comparisons of Vic-toria with other cities.  "We are outlyers compared to others in our peer group," she said.  "We are above average in debt and above average in tax."
"That's right," said Mr. McDonald.
"Have we overreached?" asked Councilmember Roden.  "What nobody predicted is to have all these assets and then have a housing slowdown.  We have to be a little more defensive now because we don't know how long this is going to last.  We're at an 18-year low in housing starts."
"When a company makes a mistake," said Kim, "the shareholders pay.  Risk is expected.  But our shareholders are tax-payers and they want very little risk."
"Houses sitting on the market today are over-valuated," she continued.  "If valuations go down, city income goes down.  What happens to our general fund?  We need to budget in a much more defen-sive way so that at some point we can say, 'Wow, we've got some money!' instead of 'We don't have any money.'"
Councilmember Richard Tieden com-mented on "all that gloom and doom" and stated, "We're right on the edge of a commercial explosion.  We continue to go through cycles.  We're certainly going to recover from this setback.  This city is prosperous and it's growing."
Asked Councilmember Roden, "What percent is our commercial base in Vic-toria?"
Replied City Planner Holly Kreft, "Two percent."
"We don't have the commercial base to explode.  Thank you," said Council-member Roden.

MOST RESIDENTS USE A LOT OF WATER
PREPARING FOR RATE CHANGES IN VICTORIA
Victoria Finance Director Jylan John-son compiled information for city council-members in response to previous ques-tions regarding residential water rates. 
The information revealed that 143 (9%) of Victoria residential customers use 8,000 gallons of water or less; 113 (7%) of Victoria residential customers use over 8,000 gallons but less than 12,000 gallons; 1,376 (84%) use over the minimum of 12,000 gallons.
The current minimum charge per quarter is $30 for 12,000 gallons or less.
Councilmembers adopted the finance director's recommendations to collect fur-ther information, perform a rate study, draft options for a rate change in Victoria, and conduct hearings for rate changes to become effective January 1^st, 2008.
Said Jylan, "We have to build our carts so the horses can pull it."

Click here for more City Scoop.